Politics 2012Santorum
Only GOP Candidate Beating Obama, Rasmussen Daily Poll Finds
(CNSNews.com)
This is somewhat more believable than last week’s
polls which claimed that only Romney was within reaching distance.
But we see the damage the GOP has done itself by majoring in
minors and failing to present a truly conservative alternative to the
Tranzi First Citizen and his backers and puppetmasters. Of
course, BOTH are just flavors of statism, and the only real
alternatives are either a return to the Constitution - strictly
enforced, or the abolition of government.

First Citizen - Politics 2012Obama
Says He Deserves A Second Term
(CNSNews.com)
What IS he (or his teleprompter) smoking?
What he deserves... well, we can’t really talk about that,
but it surely isn’t a second term: impeachment together with Holder,
Clinton, Napolitano, Sebelius, and Geithner, maybe.

It couldn’t happen to a better bunch of folks - except that of course
they will flog off the costs onto the taxpayers and future generations.
But this speeds up the process of medical industry collapse AND
wins more people to the idea of ending ObummerCare completely, not
“reforming” it.

Self DefenseCalifornia:
Taco Truck Owner Defends Himself
(Mercury News)"Despite bleeding from three gunshot wounds, a co-owner
of an East Oakland taco truck was able to return fire and twice hit the
robbery suspect accused of shooting him early Thursday, police said."
(02/02/12)

Sometimes you wish you could do better, and avoid getting shot
yourself, but clearly, the situation would have been fatal if the truck
owner had not been armed.

African collapseMali: 15,000 flee as Tuareg
rebellion
gains force
(The Scotsman)"More than 15,000 people, including military personnel,
have fled from Mali into neighbouring countries since members of the
nomadic Tuareg
launched a new rebellion against the government last month, aid
officials have said. ... The International Committee of the Red Cross
yesterday said 10,000 people had crossed into Niger after fighting in
towns just across the border, and the ICRC was preparing to provide
food and shelter." (02/06/12)

It was clear that Mali would “benefit” from the bloody rebellion and
civil war (which stirred up and severely harmed the nomads), but not
quite THIS much. Food and shelter may be important, but what the
Tuareg need are weapons, ammo, and a preacher to lead them to regaining
their traditional freedom and willingness to trade with the sedentary
peoples of the region. And one way to do that is also to arm the
townspeople so that they can meet with the nomads on equal terms, and
ALL fight and get rid of the government thugs that are all their
enemies.

Our right to bear armsNorth Carolina: Alert neighbor
nails
burglary suspect
(Winston-Salem Journal) "'I saw this guy step out of the house with a
sack of stuff on his back like Santa Claus,' Foster said. 'I got my
pistol out,' Foster said
matter-of-factly. Seeing the burglar cut across his own yard was too
much. He pulled a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and attracted the
intruder's undivided attention. 'I threw down on him and said 'Don't
move,'' Foster said. The man, identified by police as 23-year-old Jason
Carver, complied." (02/05/12)

NOT self-defense but STILL legitimate use of a firearm to protect your
neighbors. An action worthy of the Good Samaritan himself.

Mama's Note: I'm glad this worked out for him this time. It
might
have been a very different story if the robber had chosen to ignore him
and he'd shot the man as he fled. That seems to be happening a lot
lately, and it is not a good trend.It is important to remember
that, in the current legal climate of most places, you can't draw
unless you have no other choice - only to save your life, or that of
someone else.

Crash of 2009States
seek currencies made of silver and gold
(CNN)"Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on
the
brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota,
Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are seeking approval from
their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency
or explore it as an option. Just three years ago, only three states had
similar proposals in place." (02/03/12)

Predictably, the major impediment to doing this is the FedGov - which
refuses to accept this as “money” AND tries to levy income taxes on
changes in the value of the coin (as measured in Federal Reserve Notes,
aka “dollars”).

Crash of 2009 - Lies by governmentUS unemployment drops to 8.3%
after
hiring burst
(AP via mail.com)"In the most
impressive surge for the job market since early last year, the United
States added 243,000 jobs in January, far more than economists
expected. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, the lowest in
three years. Hiring accelerated across the economy and up and down the
pay scale." (02/03/12)

This website bought and repeated the AP line (which was just the
Administration’s line): this is absolute garbage: the numbers
were created by further reducing the labor force to the lowest level in
decades, so that the “8.3%” is even MORE divorced from reality than
numbers of the past. While there are obviously some companies and
some industries and some localities with jobs being added, in most of
the country, the number of jobs has continued to shrink or remain
static. The reason for this is obvious: the economy is the MAJOR
element determining who will win the 2012 elections. If people
buy these lies, then the results will be four more years of the same.

Islamic war: Arab street revoltU.S.
Military Aid to Egypt at Risk for First Time in Decades
(CNSNews.com)
Well, it is about time. Honestly, we should NOT
have been bribing Egypt’s generals for years to keep them from
attacking Israel, closing the Suez, and from sucking up to the
Russians. But notice, this comes AFTER the “victory” of
“democratic” forces in Egypt - an event more and more obviously
fictional as time goes on.

Culture warsApologies
From NFL, NBC After M.I.A. Flips Bird
(CNSNews.com)
The apologies seem half-hearted at best - and certain
does nothing to prove that the NFL or NBC are going to change anything.
A friend sent me a petition to the NFL to sign but frankly, that
is a waste of electrons. Here’s my response:
I wish AFA the best in their effort, but I don't think NFL will listen:
they are too much the "bread & circuses" providers to do
anything like this. Tebow and those like him are the
embarrassment, not this "M.I.A." woman, to the NFL.

Of course, some of us gave up on watching Super Bowl and the like a
LONG time ago: my family is one of those. I think that Boston and
New York were playing on Sunday (I saw a news story about their mayors,
both real hoploclasts, teaming up to urge Congress to take away
everyone's guns) but I even let the talk show discussion about the game
slide past me and am not sure who won - nor do I really care. I
recall hearing something about some raunchy ads and some
Holywood-politician ad, and that is about it.

I've never been one of those christians who believed it was wrong for
christians to watch television or movies, but as things have declined
so much since the 1960s, I certainly understand their arguments more.
Scott sent me a
website of interest, showing someone’s idea of
the ties and links:

Russian frontRussia's
Anti-Putin Movement Finds a Protest Song
(CNSNews.com)
Well, I suppose it is a positive thng - but really
meaningless, unless you are a liberal who elevates appearances over
reality. More important is the work of thousands of people
dedicated to liberty who organize and coordinate and teach (and preach)
and encourage the resistance and the preparations.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Politics 2012Democrats’
chances of retaking the House improve
(Washington Post) Democrats have been saying for a long time that the
House could be in play in 2012, and now some Republicans are starting
to join them. “For Democrats to take 25 seats, they will need a wave,”
former congressman Tom Davis wrote in an
op-ed in The Hill recently. “Continued polarization and obstruction
could create such a wave.”

Whistling in the dark, trying to influence the election, or just
stating a fact? Frankly, I think that they are hoping that it is
what is happening. I’ve heard even staunch Democrats strongly
supporting “vote them all out.”

Mama's Note: Not that it would make a particle of difference, either
way - to the rest of us, of course. For them, the difference is who
gets to call the shots. Same shots, naturally.

Culture wars: government attacking religionArchbishop
to U.S. Troops: Obamacare Reg ‘Is a Blow to a Freedom...for Which You
Have Seen Your Buddies Fall in Battle’
(CNSNews.com) Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services,
wrote a letter to be read at all Sunday Masses for U.S. military
personnel around the world that said ... [in part] “It is a blow to a
freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your
buddies fall in battle,” the archbishop wrote. Another line inhis letter said: “We cannot—we will not—comply with this
unjust
law.” ... the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains told the
service's senior chaplains that Catholic priests serving as Army
chaplains should be told not to read the archbishop's letter from the
pulpit. ... In his Jan. 28 telephone conversation with Army Secretary
McHugh, Archbishop Broglio was able to extract from the secretary an
admission that it had been wrong for the secretary to try to silence
the Catholic chaplains. The archbishop decided that the line in his
letter that said Catholics cannot and will not comply with the “unjust
law” of the HHS regulation would not be read aloud in Catholic Masses
by the chaplains, but that the rest of the letter would. The line
stating "we will not ... comply with this unjust law" did remain,
however, in the printed letter that was distributed at Masses said by
Army chaplains and it remains in the copies of the letter posted on the
website of the Archdiocese for the Military.

The truth is not allowed, not in the current military under the control
of the White House. So this message didn’t get out. Not
officially. The SecArmy said it would be “misinterpreted” as a “call to
civil disobedience.” No, that is exactly what it was - and it is
a message that military personnel and their families HAVE heeded in the
past and NEED to heed now and in the future, on both this and on other
issues. Why should ANY Catholic fight to uphold a worthless
document (the Constitution, in the eyes of the Pentagon and the White
House) or to sustain a regime that seeks to steal their liberties?
Pray that many military - and not just Catholics DO resist, to
the point of civil disobedience and see how the First Citizen can
control that many court martials!

What? You say that you
don’t agree with Catholics on contraceptives and abortions? So
you don’t care? WRONG ANSWER: Next time, what part of the
First Amendment (or the rest of the Bill of Rights) will the White
House - the First Citizen and his minions! - unilaterally abrogate?
And so blatantly? Free speech? Right to a trial by
jury? Right to assemble? Right to petition? Right to
habeus corpus? (Of course, most of these have already been taken
away by stealth... even if too many don’t realize it.)

Some choice words on this entire issue, forwarded
to me by MamaLiberty: Obamacare
vs the Catholic Bishops
(ACTON INSTITUTE)Now we have the government mandating that all employers must
provide
comprehensive coverage to all their employees. What was once a
prudential individual decision has become a government-mandated “right”
that trumps the employer-employee, the doctor-patient, and perhaps even
the priest-penitent relationship. Some progress. ... There is some
tragic irony to all this. We should not forget that many religious
leaders have long-supported increasing the role of the state in health
care and the economy at-large, perhaps thinking that conscience clauses
would protect their institutions against any undue interference. Well,
they were wrong; what the state giveth, the state taketh away. If you
invite the state to “assist” more and more of your activities, it will
eventually start telling you how to do things. Encouraging the
Democratic Party’s efforts from Harry Truman on to socialize the health
care system of the United States is likely to have dire consequences
for Catholic and other religious-based social service providers.
Economic ignorance among religious leaders comes at a very high cost to
their own good works.

The churches of Europe allowed the governments to fund and then control
their charitable institutions and their educational institutions and
now - the churches are but puppets of the state even more than in the
“bad old days” of the state-church: it is no wonder that fewer
and fewer Europeans are christians in ANY sense: they were betrayed by
their churches and the state is now all.

Mama's Note: The "government" has no business whatsoever
telling
anyone - not just Catholics - how to run their lives or take care of
their health... something on which we all agree. Catholics (or
atheists, or Baptists, or transvestites, or anyone else) must not be
treated differently under the law. If it is unjust for them to be so
regulated, it is equally unjust for everyone else, regardless of what
they believe.

The churches also can't whine about being "forced" to do this or that,
while at the same time using the exclusive power of government for
their own purposes and benefit. They simply can't have it both ways -
far as I'm concerned. And I won't support them under those
conditions... ever, because doing so does NOT "weaken any portion of
Obamacare" - not in the least. It merely further empowers the pampered,
perfumed princes of both conscienceless organizations in their
privileged ivory tower.

First Citizen - Culture wars: government attacks on religionWH:
Women ‘Deserve’ to Have Catholic Church Buy Them Sterilizations,
Contraceptives and Abortifacients
(CNSNews.com)
The First Citizen is trying to twist the argument into
one of rights - just like they did for pharmacists and welfare and
border-crossing and so much more. Ignoring the obvious fact that
the RC Church’s institutions do not generally hire people who are
opposed to their doctrines, and that money donated by millions of
Catholics who oppose this is being highjacked by the FedGov, you DON’T
“give” people rights that involve STEALING rights from others.
Now, let us talk about how government is supposed to give people
what they “deserve” and NOT what they are owed or PROMISED.

First Citizen - Culture wars: government attacks on religionSantorum:
'Mr. President, We're Not That Stupid'
(CNSNews.com) On the campaign trail in Golden, Colo., Monday,
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum flatly rejected the Obama
administration's claim that it is working with religious institutions
to "allay" their concerns about a new Obamacare rule requiring some
Catholic institutions and individuals to provide contraception coverage
in their health insurance plans. "Ha, that's just a bunch of
poppycock,” Santorum said. “That’s just ridiculous. Look, Mr.
President, we’re not that stupid. The Catholic Church has been arguing
and negotiating this for a year, and the administration is saying, ‘Oh,
it’s just a misunderstanding.’ It’s just a bunch of bull," Santorum
said.

Yeah, right. Hard to prove it by the GOP track record in Congress
for the last 150+ years. But in this case, he might be right. If even
two or three of the GOP candidates are mentioning it in Colorado (the
state that first opened the door to the massive 40 year wave of baby
killing), then it is sinking in.

Mama's Note: How about repealing it because it is evil,
period. It
would still be evil even if such repeal didn't help the economy.

Abominable ActWH:
Signatures to Rescind HHS Contraceptive Mandate Exceed Those on
Petition in Favor of Policy 5 to 1
(CNSNews.com)
AND IT WON’T MAKE A BIT OF DIFFERENCE.
Petitioning made sense back in the 1700s, but never really
survived today - except in the extremely formal process of nominating
candidates and doing initiatives and referendums. Twenty or
thirty MILLION signatures might be listened to - and given lip service.
The only kind of petitioning that seems to work today (until they
find a way around it) is the SOPA/PIPA protests, blackouts and such a
couple of weeks ago. The fact that the White House even HAS a
website like this indicates how worthless it really is.

Mama's Note: And all of this "legislation" would still be evil
if
100% of the petitioners were in favor of it.

First Citizen’s minionsEducation
Secretary Got $50,000 Payday from Chicago Schools
(CNSNews.com)
No conflict of interest here, eh? And we complain
about teachers not getting paid enough - bet Chicago had 50 good
teachers in private schools that could have used another $1000 each for
the holidays? I recall the plate being passed during the
Christmas concert at my sons’ school - for gifts for the teachers....

Politics 2012Romney
Looks to Squelch Santorum's Late Rise
(CNSNews.com)
Of course. While still trying to fend off Paul.
Of the four, Paul and Santorum are personally ranked orders of
magnitude higher than Gingrich or Romney - and nothing to do with
religion or home - purely their views of freedom and liberty. And
Paul is FAR beyond Santorum. But I understand people like Larkin
Rose who has - seriously- endorsed Romney, saying it will collapse
things even more rapidly.

Congress in actionSenators
Want to Replace Dollar Bill with $1 Coin to Attack Debt and Deficit
(CNSNews.com)
Oh, please, not this hoary old game - shell game, in my
opinion - again. The tiny sum saved by using coins instead of
paper is minuscule - but they will tout their waste of time in doing
this and by majoring in minors, speed the economic collapse. The
only coins that would make ANY sense would be to go back to SILVER -
even if a one-ounce coin had a face value of $30 or even $50/ounce -
but that has already been criminalized. There ARE a good many
states who are looking at issuing coins but they are going to be
denominated in grams or ounces and NOT in dollars.

SELF-DEFENSEDetroit
Vigilantes: 911 IS A JOKE
(The Daily) Detroit citizens no longer rely on police as self-defense
killings skyrocket The people of Detroit are taking no prisoners.
Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the
previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves
and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense
killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average.
Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them
safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And
they’re offering no apologies.

Mama's Note: Still far too many false conclusions and stereotypes, but
a better balance than I would expect from most reporters - especially
females. The saddest thing is that she does not even begin to recognize
that the police cannot (and never could) "protect" anyone, and have no
obligation to do so.

Culture wars: killing babiesPennsylvania:
Students get baby poison from vending machine
(CNSNews.com) Students at Shippinsberg University in central
Pennsylvania can get the
“morning-after” pill by sliding $25 into a vending machine installed at
the request of the student government. … [The] public school of 8,300
students provides the Plan B One Step emergency contraceptive along
with condoms, decongestants and pregnancy tests. The pill is
available without a prescription to anyone 17 or older, and the school
… found that all current students are that age or older[.] … The idea
started when Shippensburg conducted a survey about health center
services several years ago, and 85 percent of the respondents supported
making Plan B available, he said.

The morning-after pill, by definition, takes a human life if used.
Bullets and pistols do NOT necessarily kill people when used –
but I’ll bet you that NO one in this university will let students buy
ammo, much less guns, from a vending machine. Our hypocrisy
astounds me.

Politics 2012Eastwood
defends himself
(Daily Telegraph) Clint Eastwood has defended himself against
Republican claims his Super Bowl ad was essentially an endorsement of
Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. The two-minute spot for American
car giant Chrysler had the gravel-voiced Dirty Harry star declaring
that it to be “half-time in America” as rousing images showed the
resurgence of Detroit, the city at the heart of the US auto industry. …
What the ad doesn’t mention is that Chrysler is back to work following
an $12.5 billion government bailout from the Obama administration ….
Despite enormous controversy at the time, the 2009 bailout is now
widely seen to have saved thousands of jobs and is likely to be at the
heart of Mr Obama’s re-election efforts.

Of course, once more I have to attack the media – the Telegraph in the
UK this time – for poor reporting and more. I heard this add
multiple times in the past two days, and I frankly thought that it was
a more general ad – not tied to the election or to the First Citizen,
but to our imminent collapse in general.

Rah! Rah! Never
mind that we are $17 TRILLION behind in the score, or that the images
he showed of “Detroit” were actually LA and New Orleans – and taken
very carefully even then. Nor do they point out that that
Eastwood’s poster-child, Chrysler, is 55% owned by FIAT, which in turn
I believe is owned by Italy – one of the biggest of the PIIGS that are
bringing down the Euro and Europe.
And of course, the view that the bailout is “widely seen” to have
saved thousands of jobs is just sheer lies and statistics: although I
have seen even so-called “libertarians” stand up to defend the First
Citizen’s numbers as accurate, claiming that it is impossible to have a
conspiracy that big and lies that big – even while we continue to sink
further into depression. Of course, Eastwood himself claims to be a
libertarian - though what flavor, I do not know. Maybe he
figures, like Larson Rose, that it is best in the long run if the
Tranzi
First Citizen wins again.

The Crash of 2009 was and IS a disaster created by governments, from
local up to the federal level - but mostly it is hidden, and they
slowly are revealed one by one. The FedGov SHOULD be bankrupt, if
people were not so fearful of admitting it.

Culture wars: same-gender “marriage”Federal Appeals Court Rules Against
California
Marriage Law
(CNN) A federal appeals court ruled against California’s
voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday, arguing the ban
unconstitutionally singles out gays and lesbians for discrimination. In
a split decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals found the state’s Proposition 8 “works a meaningful harm to
gays and lesbians” by denying their right to civil marriage in
violation of the 14th Amendment. ... The 2-1 decision is expected to be
appealed, to either the full court or to the U.S. Supreme Court, and a
stay of the order remains in place as the appeal process continues, the
court noted.

Well, I realize that I will be bitterly resented and even hated
for saying this, but this is another example of twisted and warped
judicial politics and pushing a Tranzi agenda that has NOTHING to do
with personal liberty. There is nothing in the law or definition
that says a person must be able to marry for “love” or “lust” or
anything else, and a male (whether homosexual or heterosexual) is free
to marry any woman that will have him, and vice-versa. Every
other culture and society has viewed two men marrying or two women
marrying as a perversion, and now government is ramming this perversion
down our throats - even the throats of the masses of the People’s
Republic of California. People should be free to do whatever
perverted (or righteous) thing they want, as long as they don’t force
it on others - but that does NOT give them (or judges) the right
to call a tail a leg and claim the cat has five legs!

Home Front - A Once-Free EconomyHorrors
of Business Approvals in SanFran
(A Thousand Nations)
An excellent review of what a hideous nightmare
starting a business has become in this nation. Thanks to the folks at
Godfather Politics for this one. San Francisco is not the only one -
and not just one of 10,000 cities and counties in America to do this.
I know dozens of people who have tried - and only a few have
succeeded - even in rural and frontier locations. The heavy arm
of the FedGov, the states as little more than Roman-style tax farmers
(“publicans”) and then the nanny-state micromanagement of counties and
towns and special districts is the mountain piled on the camel’s back.
One very good friend and client is seriously thinking about going
Galt - and has never even READ Ayn Rand (or watched the movie).

Great IdeasTen-Year-Old
Creates New Explosive in School
(popsci.com)
Surprised that she hasn’t been expelled and make to disappear (yeah, it
is a private or semi-private school). I mean, kids get thrown out
of school for drawing a picture of a pistol, and this girl has invented
a whole new explosive - who knows, maybe she has had a bad childhood...
But seriously, there are NEW things out there that God knows and
we don’t - He’s left it for us to find!

Our right to defend ourselvesNetherlands
general defends military: ‘I choose the gun’
(TheBlaze.com) “Ladies and gentleman, I share your goals,” he said
while holding a rifle. “I share the goals of the speakers you heard
before. I did not choose to take up the pen, the brush, the camera. I
chose this instrument. I chose the gun.” “Let us cherish the fact that
most of you have never been close to a gun,” he added. Why? “It means
the Netherlands is a peaceful country. The Netherlands is not at war.
It means soldiers are not needed to patrol our streets.” Van Uhm — who lost his son
to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2008 — goes on to explain why he
chose the military.

I am sure this is another point for which I will be condemned, but
military force - properly constituted, properly training, properly
used, by free people in a free nation are essential to the preservation
of liberty. Like ANY tool, military forces can be used wrongly -
and all too often ARE. But to hate military forces is like hating
guns or swords.

Mama's Note: The real problem with the organized military is
that it
is always (so far) the exclusive tool of the state. It is the state
that claims exclusive authority to use such force, and no "private
military" is permitted unless totally sold out to
the state. Any such that is not completely under the control of the
state is called a "rebel militia," or worse.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Politics 2012Santorum
sweeps Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado
(mail.com) Returns from 83 percent of Minnesota's precincts
showed Santorum with 45 percent support, Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 27
percent and Romney — who won the state in his first try for the
nomination four years ago — with 17 percent. Former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich trailed with 11 percent. It was closer in Colorado, where
returns from all the precincts showed Santorum with 40 percent of the
vote to 35 for Romney. Gingrich had 13, and Paul claimed 12 percent.
Romney showed no sign of disappointment in remarks to supporters.
[Missouri was a non-binding straw poll.]

What is interesting in the mail.com
story is that the headline page AND the main story show a jubilant Ron
Paul. He has stated that his strategy is not to win any one state
as much as it is to get as many delegates as possible. The
results in Colorado indicate (to me) the enormous power of the state
party structure in the GOP (which allowed a Democrat to win the last
race for governor) and their dislike - no, hatred - of the Tea Party
and the libertarian wing. But once more, Romney’s standing is
weakened, and Gingrich is sucking wind bigtime.

Politics 2012'We
Felt It Coming,' Santorum Says After Triple Win
(CNSNews.com)
This may be - and as I’ve said, I’ll tolerate Santorum
more than Romney or Gingrich, but it is clear that the price is going
to be high for the GOP - and for the ruins of this nation - whichever
of them gets it, no matter how much clout Paul has.

Mama's Note: Who is this "we?" A lot of us have learned a
great
deal. Bernanke doesn't seem to be among them.

Nanny state - First WomanInspired
by Michelle Obama, Walmart Introduces ‘Healthier’ Food Logo, Plans to
Track ‘Behavior Shift’
(CNSNews.com)
This is... gag, it is hard to eat when your stomach is
soured by this kind of nonsense. What, does Wally-world think it
can get a better class of customers if it drives all its old ones to
Family Dollar? Or is this just a way (besides the all-time
favorite of campaign cash) for Wally-world to suck up to the First
Citizen and the Tranzis so it can go build stores in Haiti and Tunisia
and soon, Syria and Iran?

Mama's Note: I'd certainly object if they were planning to
track
individual users, but such does not seem to be the case. If WalMart
wants to jump on the "healthy for you" bandwagon, it's their business.
Those who think it a great idea - or don't care either way -
will continue to shop at WalMart. Others won't. Their choice.

Self-defenseTexas:
Attacked by Mountain Lion in Big Bend National Park
(Fox News, Austin)
Thanks to Deb for this one; her thoughts: So if
the father had been carrying a weapon and had shot the lion and even
killed it, he would have probably been up on felony charges. Will
he still face charges for wounding the lion with a pocketknife?
Home
front – Stupid people tricksDrones
over US get an OK from Congress
(Washington Times)… a bill Congress passed this week
to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S.
airspace. The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is
expected
to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop
regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.
Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones
for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and
eventually by private companies as well.

Technology
is NOT evil – and the government shouldn’t have the power to forbid
people
to fly remotely-piloted vehicles (aircraft) over the United
States. “Drones” are EEEVILLL – so we have this sort
of paranoia and panic. RPVs can serve
hundreds of purposes to make life better for us all: firefighting,
emergency
deliveries, aerial mapping, crop dusting, yes, and security. OF
COURSE the government can use them for
evil purposes, as can companies WORKING for the government – or
themselves. But the technology is NOT evil, and it is one
more thing that we HAVE to – and GET to live with.

Politics
2012Poll:
Ron Paul surges to second place nationally, just eight points behind
Romney
(Daily Call)A surprising national poll released Tuesday found
Texas Rep. Ron Paul surging to second place in the GOP presidential
field, coming within eight percentage points of front-runner Mitt
Romney. The Reuters/Ipsos poll results show Paul at 21 percent
nationally, with Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, at 29
percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich scored 19 percent support
in
the poll, conducted Feb. 2–6, while former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick
Santorum took 18 percent.

The MSM
didn’t say much about this – they were too busy talking about how NONE
of the
GOP candidates were within “striking distance” of the First Citizen,
and how
the GOP was eating itself alive and how WONDERFUL the job and economic
news
was. Get some idea that they are a
teeny-bit biased, but then, I’m biased against them. Dr. Paul’s
second place showing in Minnesota
(an odd state to find him so desirable, frankly) seems to be the herald
of more
progress in the next few weeks.

Kansas: Lawrence
using iPad to help with drunk driving
(KMBZ) It started out as a way to crack down on suspected drunk
drivers, but Douglas County judges might have started a revolution with
the help of the iPad. The
iPad has made getting a warrant for blood tests a whole lot
easier for the Lawrence area. Instead of having to drive to a judge's
house in the middle of the night, when a breathalyzer is refused,
officers can send it electronically through their new iPads. Now they
get warrants within minutes. And Chief Judge Robert Fairchild says that
since the story was published in the local paper, it has garnered
interest in other areas. "Other judges have called and said that's a
great idea, tell me how you're doing it. One of them had their IT
department call me and we talked about how we're doing it," said
Fairchild. Judge Fairchild says Lawrence is exploring numerous uses for
their new tool.

I’ll BET. Thanks to Steve for this one: his thoughts: They say
this is to stop drunk drivers, but what is to stop them from getting a
warrant when you just refuse the cop from searching your car using your
fourth amendment rights because he/she wants to?
Nathan’s thoughts: Steve is right, and that isn’t just the half
of it. This week, especially, a whole rash of stories about
insanely evil behavior on the part of cops has shown up - but there are
always a dozen a week, from Federal rangers tazering people who let
their dogs walk without a leash, to cops who respond to crime scenes
and rape the victims, to your everyday - “she’s got a camera! Beat her
up and steal it!” events. Virtually ANY excuse for “contact”
between a cop and a “civilian” is excuse for abuse by the cop - this
would be just the same. And picture the judge woken up from a
sound night’s sleep with his second-string mistress by his ‘phone
ringing. He rolls over, grabs it, looked with unfocused eyes to
make out what it says, grunts, gets distracted, and swipes his thumb
across a touch-box to “approve” - and before you know it, fifty
heavily-armed and heavily-armored cops go racing out in their
government-surplus Peacekeeper USAF security six-wheelers to knock down
all the doors and windows of Widow Parmalee’s house, at 666 Winchester,
while all the guys counting money from their latest meth sales in the
totally different house at 999 Winchester don’t have a care in the
world...

Mama's Note: When, in a free country, neither one of them
should
have any fear of such a "raid."

World warsUK: "No negotiations" on
Falklands
(CNN)"Britain on Wednesday dismissed a complaint from Argentina
about the 'militarization of the South Atlantic' as tensions rise
regarding the Falkland Islands, over which the two countries fought a
war 30 years ago. 'The people of the Falkland Islands are British out
of choice,' the British Foreign Office said in a statement. 'They are
free to determine their own future, and there will be no negotiations
with Argentina on sovereignty unless the Islanders wish it.'" (02/08/12)

Is there anyone who cannot accept and understand the rights of the
Falklanders - or the way the Brits have - in this rare instance - dealt
honorably with their relatives and dependents? And that Argentina
and its people have perverted their machismo into a complete evil?
Of course, the greatest danger facing the Falklanders right now
is NOT Argentina - it is that effete self-sustaining, greedy,
larcenous, blind, callous group of men and women that call themselves
the House of Commons - and their self-seeking, power-hungry Deputy
ministers and civil service types, and the fact that they’ve sold out a
whole lot more than 3140 subjects of Her Majesty more than once should
be a warning.

Mama's Note: I'm wondering if these people really do want to
continue to be "subjects" of Britain. What's in it for them?

Crash of 2009 - Trashing the dollarOil below $99 as US crude demand
lags
economy
(ABC News)"Oil prices hovered below $99 a barrel Thursday in Asia as
U.S. crude demand lags the overall improvement in the world's biggest
economy. ... Crude has hovered near $100 for the last few months as
economic indicators, such as better than expected jobs data, suggests
the U.S. economy is strengthening. However, U.S. crude demand has been
slower to pick up." (02/08/12)

None of this explains why gasoline prices have climbed 20+ cents in the
last 10 days, nor why prices did NOT drop to well below $3/gallon
nationwide (well, except for CA and HI, but we know why that is there!)
during the winter season, of which we are now two-thirds done. Of
course, the jobs data is pretty certain to be bogus, so demand really
is NOT “lagging” the economy. It is the fall of the dollar, slow
and sporadic but still there, that is causing fuel prices to go up and
the oil prices not to drop farther.

Abominable Act - Culture wars: attack on religionSenate
Democrats Say Obama “Reinforced” His Stance on Contraception Mandate at
Democratic Retreat
(ScottyStarnes)
According to the acquaintance from whom I got this:
“Obama looks like he is hell-bent on offending all religions
except Islam.” Apparently, they are good at deluding themselves.
I read, and got MORE sick to my stomach, a few of the
“justifications” for this stance and the entire issue - the vitriol and
hatred is much worse than anything I’m putting out. And the
reasoning is putrid.

Mama's Note: Good... immediately followed by repeal of ALL the
"laws" and regulations that attempt to force the rest of us to act in
ways that violate our rights and faith. That would include everything
except murder, rape, theft and fraud. I see no difference between
"religious freedom" and any other kind.

Congress in action – Theft by governmentHoyer:
‘The Fact Is You Don’t Need a Budget’
(CNSNews.com)
Now when I think about it, he is probably right:
thieves and criminals generally don’t have to worry about budgets –
they just go out and steal what they want.

Congress in action - Culture wars: attack on religionSen.
Levin: Military Chaplains Shouldn't 'Violate the Tenets of their Troops'
(CNSNews.com)Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that he was not informed enough
to make a definitive statement on whether the Army’s Office of Chief of
Chaplains was right when it ordered Catholic chaplains not to read a
Jan. 26 letter
from the Catholic Archdiocese of the Military Services during Mass. ...
But Levin did offer a comment. “We want our chaplains in the military
to be able to follow their own religious tenets, we never want anyone
to violate their own religious tenets, but we don’t want them to
violate the tenets of their troops either,” Levin told CNSNews.com.

Huh? Chaplains are THERE to “violate the tenets of their troops”
- when they drink or let hate get the better of them or whore or think
about looting or attacking civilians or anything else that is immoral.
Based on this INSANE argument, military chaplains would never be
allowed to speak or teach or preach about ANYthing that one of their
troops did or thought that they could do: rape their comrade’s
wife, sleep with the commander’s daughter (or son), steal the payroll,
trade their gear and weapons on the black market - it is all open.
And if one of their troops is an atheist - then forget about
preaching about God. Levin has always been a Tranzi, and this
proves it.

Crash of 2009 - Culture wars: environismBeef
Prices Expected to Climb for Next 2 Years
(CNSNews.com)
Along with everything else’s prices. Both the
environists and the medical/nanny Nazis are feeling fine about this.
Fact is, cattlemen culled their herds pretty good, between the
economy and price squeezes and new regulations and drought. So
there was a lot of supply for a while, and prices fell - and people
demanded more. How, the pendulum swings the other way.

Stupid government tricks - Islamic war: Arab street revoltUS
Threats to Cut Aid Over NGO Dispute Won’t Work, Says Egypt’s PM
(CNSNews.com)
Never mind that without that, the Egyptian military is
sunk for years - until they join up with the Russians or Chinese.
Nice to know, though, how much democracy has improved things -
like liberty - in Egypt.

Stupid government tricks - Culture warsPentagon
Expected to Issue New Rules Allowing Women Closer to Front Lines
(CNSNews.com)
The more we put our daughters and wives into combat
(and there isn’t any closer than can get to the front lines than in
Combat Engineers and Signal Corps duties, especially in a fluid
environment like the ‘Stan or the Sand Box), the more support - moral
support, especially - we withdraw from them. Many people warn (as
does history) that bad women - women who buy into hate and crime and
evil in general - are worse than bad men - they hate more, are more
cruel, are more brutal, and worse overall. The Chaplain Corps
provides a key part of the effort to keep them from “submitting to the
Dark Side” - and yet we are reducing them to impotence.

Is this understatement, misreporting, or do they really think we aren’t
“really in trouble” NOW? Probably the last, since it is clear
that the RINOs are as much in need of being hunted down and culled in
the CPAC as in anyplace else in the GOP: and I use the term “RINO” to
speak of the popular idea and NOT the true nature of the GOP
demonstrated throughout history.

Local tyranny - thugsWisconsin:
Woman calls 9-1-1, gets raped by cop
(American Vision)
As I mentioned earlier, this seems to be the week
to reveal this kind of execrable behavior - worse than the average run
of cops by a long shot - or is it? We’ve seen hundreds of
examples of Explorer and Venture Scouts (both women and men) abused and
even killed by cops: we’ve seen the demented and the
mentally-handicapped gunned down in cold blood; we’ve seen people
robbed and maimed and blinded and beaten by cops on the most flimsy of
excuses. How many more cities and towns have “police forces”
which have been covering this up for decades? The person who posted
this wrote: “I would add that justice has still not been served.
The
police department that harbored a known sexual deviant through five
previous investigations, the district attorneys and officials who
refused to prosecute or even take action at all, and the police who
held the woman on no charges for four days—all deserve keen attention,
too.”

Mama's Note: "Keen attention?" Let's see... what is the
population
of that town or county? How many people should be indicted and
prosecuted for this crime? Do the math. If the people who lived there
truly cared, justice would already have been served. But no, they are
all waiting for someone else... the "officials," to take care of it for
them. Not ever going to happen.

Stupid people tricksExecuting
Your Teen’s Laptop?
(Red Tape (MSN))[Tommy Johnson] posted a YouTube video showing him
firing bullets through his daughter's laptop
computer as an act of discipline. The shooter, who identifies
himself as Tommy Jordan from North Carolina, has not yet responded to
requests for comment, so it's not possible to verify the authenticity
of the stunt, in which he allegedly “executed” the laptop after his
daughter posted a profanity-laced note on her Facebook page.

Parental authority? Yes, indeed. Tough love - expensive
tough love: doubt she earned the money to buy that herself. But
don’t bother to listen to the experts - how do you think we GOT in this
mess in the first place?

Stupid governmentOglala
Sioux Tribe Sues Beer Companies
(Fox News via Vision to America) An American Indian tribe sued
some of the world’s largest beer makers Thursday, claiming they
knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South
Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South
Dakota said it is demanding $500 million in damages for the cost of
health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic
alcoholism on the reservation, which encompasses some of the nation’s
most impoverished counties. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of
Nebraska also targets four beer stores in Whiteclay, a Nebraska town
near the reservation’s border that, despite having only about a dozen
residents, sold nearly 5 million cans of beer in 2010. Tribal leaders
and activists blame the Whiteclay businesses for chronic alcohol abuse
and bootlegging on the Pine Ridge reservation, where all alcohol is
banned. They say most of the stores’ customers come from the
reservation, which spans southwest South Dakota and dips into Nebraska.

This is EXACTLY what I expect from the grand and sovereign government
of the Oglala Lakota, I am sad to report. Look, I do a lot of
work for people on Pine Ridge (it’s called that, “Pine Ridge” although
the Sicangu Lakota immediately to the east call their own reservation
“The Rosebud.”) I’ve been to Whiteclay, which is indeed within
walking distance of Pine Ridge town: the tribal capital and largest
population center (though there are many communities a long way from
Pine Ridge town.

[sarcasm] I’ve seen the beer store owners and their
employees go through the housing areas in Pine Ridge and force the
people out at gunpoint and with whips and clubs force them to walk (or
even drive) to Whiteclay and made them buy beer and other alcohol, not
even letting them buy snacks to soak up some of the ethanol in the
drinks. And they are FORCED to buy the cheapest stuff, too: I
don’t keep up with beer companies so I don’t know who owns Hamms or
Lone Star or Bud Light - but I suspect that not a lot of these evil
people allow the good tribesmen and tribeswomen of Pine Ridge to buy
the nice expensive imported German or Belgian beers. After all,
they know that after they get them all drunk on beer, they can force
them to do things - you know - and get half of them (really more than
half, but lets not go into that) PG and raise another generation of
FAS-afflicted customers. Just like they’ve been doing since
(according to the article, at least) 1832. And Whiteclay is the
ONLY place that has this evil Gang of Four Storeowners doing that.
They then force these people who are forced to buy their swill
and make them drive on roads out of Pine Ridge (the Rez, not the town)
and throw their empty cans and bottles on the shoulders of the highways
leading to Rapid City and Hermosa and Hot Springs and Kadoka and
Interior and even Martin (which is technically on the Rez - or was).
(I have to admit these folks can throw empties a long ways -
clear across the road.) [/sarcasm]

And what is the solution of the five
council members, who have tried so many different solutions, getting
everyone else to do everything that they can? What do they do after
decades of attempts to use (and get) government to fix things have
failed? They use MORE government.

Seriously, I HAVE been to Whiteclay - a nasty little place, and way TOO
close to Pine Ridge town, which is ALSO a nasty, slightly bigger place.
Even in comparison to places like Mission and Rosebud and Fort
Thompson and Browning and Shiprock - only Fort Yates (ND - Standing
Rock) comes close. Even those who live in Pine Ridge town and
DON’T DRINK admit that Pine Ridge can drive you to drink. And (though
the Tranzis and the bleeding hearts don’t want to admit or even talk
about it), AmerInd DO have a much greater susceptibility to alcohol’s
more severe negative impacts. Alcoholism is a VERY severe problem
on the Rez and in urban areas both, even among very successful people.
And FAS and other damage is rampant. Some families have
history of alcoholism going back eight generations - to at least the
1840s in the vicinity of Fort Laramie and the Overland Trail, and for
some back another fifty or sixty years (2-4 more generations) to the
establishment of the fur-trade along the Missouri. And the
problem has grown worse - for several reasons.

First, there is the hopelessness that permeates MANY reservations, but
is tangible enough to cut around Pine Ridge in the many communities.
It is more than being a defeated and conquered people: Ireland
and Scotland and many parts of Germany endured that for multiple
centuries. It is also the total change and loss of culture.
It is also the denigration of their their culture: the systematic
dismantling of their social system and suppression of their old
religion (NOT them abandoning it as they were converted, as happened in
Europe before the Middle Ages, but a forced abandonment as bad as any
Papal army ever imposed on a European county). And it was and is
the same hopelessness that Russians endured from 1917 to 1992 - except
that the Lakota have suffered their version from 1877 to 2012 and for
some, even going back to 1851 - more than TWICE the time: the
hopelessness of living under Communism. The hopelessness of
having to live by depending on others who can cut you off at any time,
of seeing that success goes to those who can best kiss up to those in
power, of even seeing that your culture’s highest honor and glory and
self-fulfillment - the ideal of the Warrior - is treated like a
contagious evil. Of seeing your family’s women pushed into roles
that force them to be both matriarchs and whores, that offer premiums
for having children without real fathers (other than biologically, of
course) and destroy families (nuclear or extended or clan) in multiple
ways.

As I said, the OST (and many other tribal nations) have tried time
after time, for decades - indeed, centuries - to get government -
“wasichu” (Anglo) government AND their own - to solve this and other
problems. And they have seen the effort fail time and time again. You
can
see that in ravaged bodies, and you can see that in ravaged and
abandoned lands and homes and businesses. And court cases and law
suits have been tried over and over again - look up the Ponca leader
Standing Bear’s case against General Crook in 1879 some time.

But government - tribal, local, state OR federal - is NOT going to
solve these problems. Because government is, first and foremost,
the CAUSE of far too many of these problems - or at best, government
created the conditions that allowed - and even encouraged - these
problems in the first place: breaking of treaties, ignoring
ownership rights, banning cultural activities, hypocritically demanding
giving up of many things, and claiming to provide protection and
services that didn’t exist and were not possible: like banning the
liquor and gun trades.

Stupid government tricks - Theft by governmentLessons
from Solyndra
(Library of Economics and Liberty) From 2008 to 2011, Solyndra spent
almost $1.9 million on lobbyists...

A VERY nice investment for them, indeed. They really won - and
the taxpayers lost. This circular win-win-lose sort of deal is
what government is all about. But NO, the solution is NOT to end
lobbying, the solution is to end government power to steal from one
group and give to another.

Free MarketsNew
Way to Pay Doctors
(Wall Street Journal) Part of medical providers' compensation could be
tied to goals such as avoiding hospital readmissions under a new
UnitedHealth Group Inc. payment plan...

In other words, paying for results? What a bizarre and twisted
idea!

Mama's Note: The problem with that - still does not give
responsibility or control to the patient! Far too easy this way to
leave patients OUT of the hospital when they truly need to be there.
The contract involve the patient and doctors directly for this to work.

Stupid people tricksDependence
on Government at All-Time High
(Heritage Foundation)Government dependency jumped 8.1 percent in
the past year, with the most assistance going toward housing, health
and welfare, and retirement...

The more we grow to depend on it, the more the probability of it
completely failing, and the worse the results.

Home front - Culture wars: familiesFamily
Proximity, Childcare and Women's Labor Force Attachment
(National Bureau of Economic Research)The predicted probability of
employment and labor force participation is 4 to 10 percentage points
higher for married women with young children living in close proximity
to their mothers or their mothers-in-law compared with those living
further away...

In other words, with family to help, the more likely for mothers to
dump their children and go out and work. This is a good thing?

Mama's Note: No, without family members to help, the children
are
left in the care of strangers... or home alone. Not all of these women
are leaving their homes and children because they want to. Most can't
feed those children any other way.

Always seeking to steal more, this is a
low-hanging fruit for too many legislatures, and they just can’t resist.

Europe’s fall Greece: Pols agree to new spending
cuts
to avert default
(Los Angeles Times)"Greece's political leaders have agreed with
foreign creditors on steep austerity cuts, officials in Athens said
Thursday, hours after a dangerous deadlock stalled talks on a new
rescue package designed to stave off a chaotic default. ... The accord
follows days of negotiations over demands by European Union and
International Monetary Fund officials for more spending cuts by Greece
to bring down its public debt and deficit levels." (02/09/12)

Once more, the Eurozone has bought a bit of time, but I suspect that
ordinary Greeks aren’t going to accept this very well, and the crash
will come anyway.

Okay, let me get this straight: 15,000 FEWER people got fired or laid
off that week than the week before. Now, that is very nice for
those people. But we STILL saw a third of a million people - in
just ONE week, get fired or laid off - in addition to the same number
(slightly higher) the week before that and the week before that - and
this is “recovery” to Bloomberg and crew? Good news, yes, like if
someone who has been losing a pint of blood an hour only loses 15
ounces in the last hour - but healing? Please.

Mama's Note: Here is the explanation for this tricky little
problem,
from our good friends Abbott
and Costello!

Stupid People AND Government TricksAnne
Sessions, 85-Year-Old Oregonian, Suing Big Bank Over Fake Suicide Call
(Huffington Post) Anne Sessions of Lane County, Oregon is suing Wells
Fargo after one of its
debt collectors reported to police that that the 85-year-old was
threatening suicide, a claim she maintains was false,
The Oregonian reports. After hitting financial trouble, Sessions
says she arranged a payment plan for her credit card debt with Wells
Fargo last year, but just days later she allegedly received a call from
a debt collector who badgered her with a "contemptous tone," according
to the lawsuit. Sessions told the collector that such abuse may cause
other customers to take their own lives, which allegedly prompted a
line of questioning that included the collector asking Sessions:
"But...if you did [commit suicide], how would you do it - hurt
yourself?"
Courthouse News reports. Within a half hour police arrived at
Sessions' door and forcibly took her to the hospital. She was released
hours later after hospital staff said they "strongly" believed Sessions
was not a threat to herself or others,
ABC News reports. But the incident left Sessions stuck with a
hospital bill worth $1,055, for which she is seeking compensation, as
well as $250,000 in punitive damages.

Now, I don’t usually use stories from the HuffPo, but a friend (Steve)
sent this to me and it is well-documented. Here we have another
perfect example of the arrogance of cops and their casual brutality and
cruelty, AND of private companies using government as a hammer.

Mama's Note: ANOTHER reason to stay out of debt.I'd
also suggest it's not a good idea to talk to strangers on the telephone.

I heard this yesterday (Friday), and frankly, it is a shell game.
If Planned Parenthood is for it, you know it can’t be good,
anyway. Yes, the “institutions” won’t have to pay for it, but the
insurance firms or funds WILL - which means that Catholics and others
opposed to killing children inside their mothers will STILL be forced
to pay for it - just indirectly. And it makes “contraception” of
any type into yet another “right.” Sadly, too many Catholics (and
too many of their leaders and friends) will see this as a victory and
abandon their rebellion. The First Citizen wins - for now.
And our freedom - loses big time.

Mama's Note: It's exactly what I expected... the Church has no
reason to fight with the government, and the government is happy to
create this little exception for their good friends in the Church.
Neither one has the slightest interest in individual liberty OR
justice. It's all about power and perks.

****************Your comments and feedback
are welcome! Now PoL has its own forum at The Mental Militia! Check
it out

Nathan Barton
Written from the Four Corners, a land and community which has some (but
not much) freedom left, but where even that liberty hangs by a thread.
Nathan is a christian, a free-market anarchist, military officer,
engineer, and writer. Feel
free to contact him through The
Price of Liberty.

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